Here, Phishy, Phishy

The other day, a honey of a check arrived in the mail:

If you can read the dollar amount on my oh-so-eloquently taken photo, that's $2,900. For about five seconds, I felt I had hit the jackpot.

Then, reality and/or common sense quickly began to set in.

The check was mailed to me partly due to my own fault, or lack of homework on the subject, or call it what you will. I have been doing a good deal of job hunting lately, in attempt to find something additional to my regular day job or what-have-you. A few days prior, I answered an ad to inquire about becoming a "secret" shopper, and shortly thereafter, the aforementioned check arrived in my mailbox, looking legitimate in its overnight mail envelope and everything.

After conducting a good deal of research online,  Googling information on the company behind it all and so forth, I learned that I had been suckered, like so many Home Shopping Network subscribers, into a scam. The idea is that these so-called "secret" shoppers deposit these checks into their bank accounts to then transfer most of the money, while retaining a percentage of the funds as payment, to then test the customer service and timeliness and so forth behind a couple of money-transferring businesses.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? The only problem is that these checks are fake/forged, and the person who thinks he/she is doing secret shopping actually is stuck with exorbitant fees when the check later bounces.

Suffice me to say that I wrote back to this company, asking them to remove my name and information from their database. The check ended up as confetti and in my wastebasket.

Generally speaking, I believe in trusting others and in giving them the benefit of the doubt. But, at the same time, we live in a world in which we must be "wise as serpents" and yet "harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

If something appears to good to be true, it most likely is. That principle certainly applies to those who would be "phishers" of men.